Re: word processor document format: what parts?

["Amir E. Aharoni" <amir_e_a netvision net il>]

(previously posted to Gnome GUI mailing list -
but apparently most of the action is on this list, so i repost it.)

> I can testify i know a lot of MS-Word [l]users who still type
> some tabs at the beginning of the line instead of using
> indentation

Those are the power users ;)

Most don't really know what the Tab key is for at all and use spaces. I
know someone who bought MSWord 'cause it's "the best WP, it has the most
features, etc." - that's what he said. When i tried to explain him how
to use styles, he said: "No, no, NO! I write _everything_ with Times
12pt". He uses spaces to center documents' titles.

Still, there MUST be a word processor that has all features of Word and
having interface similar to Word's. Most often the first question about
LiNUX is: "is there Word for LiNUX?"

However it's file format should be XML - there are lots of good reasons
for that:

* Word-like binary format may be space-saving, faster to
read/render/whatever, but LiNUX is fast enough and not too much people
care about drive space today when 2GB HD is too small.

* XML is open and free and it is a standard. There's no point in
inventing new standards. No-one is crazy enough today to say that TCP/IP
sucks and the whole of the internet should be converted to SNA.

* XML is good for paper, screen AND network.

* XML is a (kinda) programming language, so WISIWYG haters will love it.

Now, we all know that all WYSIWYG HTML editors are terrible (Netscape
Composer, Frontpage, Dreamweaver, whatever). They like to add
unnecessary META tags, throw in xtra whitespace wherever they want to,
mess up comments and existing tags. So a lot of thought should be put
into good integration of raw XML editing and WYSIWYG mode.

I've got some more ideas for and XML editor, i plan to put them on a
website i'm building these days.

-- 
Amir Elisha' Aharoni, the Original Israelite
mailto:amir_e_a@netvision.net.il icq:3816214

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